Issue - June 10, 2025

📝 Editor’s Summary

This week’s headlines reflect growing legal and regulatory scrutiny across sectors—from Canada’s finalized greenwashing enforcement guidelines to a high-profile shareholder governance settlement at Google. Internationally, legal action intensifies around climate finance, carbon markets, and environmental protections in Brazil, France, and the UK.

📌 This Week’s Key Developments

Canada Finalizes Anti-Greenwashing Guidelines
The Canadian Competition Bureau released final guidelines on environmental claims, outlining how businesses must comply with newly added greenwashing provisions in the Competition Act. The guidance confirms that companies may make environmental claims, but these must not be false or misleading and must be backed by proper testing or substantiation. Penalties for violations can reach the greater of $10 million CAD or 3% of global annual revenue for first offenses.
🔗 Read more → Government of Canada

BlackRock Delisted from Texas Fossil Fuel Boycott List After ESG Reversal
The Texas Comptroller removed BlackRock from the state’s fossil fuel divestment list following the firm’s withdrawal from the Net-Zero Asset Managers initiative and reduced participation in Climate Action 100+. Officials cited these changes, along with BlackRock’s scaled-back ESG fund offerings and energy sector investments, as reasons for the removal. While no longer barred from managing state funds, BlackRock remains a defendant in an ongoing antitrust lawsuit alleging coordinated action to restrict coal investments.
🔗 Read more → ESG Dive

Court Upholds SEC’s Shareholder Proposal Rule
A U.S. District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the SEC’s 2020 rule changes, which made it more difficult for shareholders to submit and resubmit proposals at company annual meetings, including those related to ESG topics. The plaintiffs argued the rules would suppress shareholder advocacy and reduce long-term value. The court found the SEC acted within its mandate to promote efficiency, competition, and capital formation.
🔗 Read more → Investing.com

Google to Spend $500M on Compliance Overhaul
Google has agreed to invest $500 million over 10 years to revamp its internal compliance systems, settling a shareholder derivative lawsuit tied to antitrust oversight failures. The reforms include creating a new board-level risk committee, a senior executive group reporting to the CEO, and cross-functional compliance teams within product units. While Google denied wrongdoing, the changes must remain in place for at least four years. Shareholders described it as one of the largest corporate investments to fund regulatory compliance reforms through a settlement.
🔗 Read more → Reuters

Brazil Prosecutors Move to Void $180M Carbon Deal
Federal prosecutors have sued to block a $180 million carbon credit agreement in Pará, alleging the state failed to obtain the required consent of Indigenous communities. The complaint also claims the credits were sold prematurely and could expose public funds to liability. The case highlights rising legal risks tied to REDD+ projects and land use rights.
🔗 Read more → OCCRP

UK Lawmakers Urge Ban on Bottom Trawling in Protected Waters
The UK’s Environmental Audit Committee has called for a ban on bottom trawling in offshore marine protected areas where it poses a high ecological risk, citing enforcement gaps and environmental harm. The recommendation increases pressure on the government to bolster marine protections.
🔗 Read more → UK Parliament

⚖️ Regulatory Spotlight

Canada | Environmental Claims and the Competition Act
The Canadian Competition Bureau has issued new enforcement guidelines under the Competition Act, clarifying requirements for environmental claims. Businesses must now ensure that green product claims are backed by adequate testing, while broader claims about a company’s environmental benefits must be substantiated using internationally recognized methodologies. The Bureau emphasizes that environmental claims significantly influence consumer decisions and must be both truthful and substantiated. These guidelines aim to help businesses make credible, compliant claims in an era of heightened environmental scrutiny.
🔗 Read more → Competition Bureau

🧼 Greenwashing Watch

TotalEnergies Faces Landmark Greenwashing Trial in France
TotalEnergies appeared before a Paris court in a first-of-its-kind French case alleging greenwashing by a fossil fuel company. Environmental groups accuse the firm of misleading consumers by promoting a “carbon neutrality by 2050” strategy and advertising gas as the least-polluting fossil fuel, claims they say do not reflect its actual operations. TotalEnergies denies wrongdoing, arguing its messaging constitutes institutional communication regulated under financial law, not consumer protection statutes.
🔗 Read more → Barron’s

Greenpeace Accuses Dairy Giant Arla of Climate Greenwashing
Greenpeace has filed coordinated legal complaints against dairy giant Arla in Denmark and Sweden, accusing it of overstating climate progress through flawed reporting. A parallel case targets Fonterra in New Zealand, marking a growing global crackdown on misleading environmental claims in the dairy sector.
🔗 Read more → Greenpeace

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